Dom Wars: Round Two Page 7

  “On your mark. Go.”

  I sorted my edges and found my corners then zoned out. Who knew all those lonely hours with jigsaw puzzles would come in handy?

  “Look at you fly.” Lucian’s voice sounded like he was smiling. “Aren’t we full of surprises?”

  “It’s a puzzle, not rocket science.”

  “No, but you’ve clearly had practice. A lot.”

  “I like puzzles.”

  “Oh, I know.”

  “No you don’t.”

  “Oh yes. You’re one big puzzle. But don’t worry, there aren’t many puzzles I can’t solve.”

  “Good. Maybe start with those tits you couldn’t get your eyes off of.”

  “I just might do that. I was offered to suck them.”

  Fury burned in my stomach at the idea, at the regret that he hadn’t in his tone. The image of him doing just that threatened to superimpose itself over my puzzle. “Likely you’ve already done that and more with her.”

  He made a sound that said I’d burned him good and he was going to pay me back for it. Whatever.

  I forced a collection of images of Gramma into my mind to replace the tormenting scenes of Lucian with other women that kept interrupting my concentration. Using Gramma that way felt morbid and the need to do it made me pissed at him.

  I glanced at Lucian’s progress. Huh. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who liked puzzles. Good, we needed the points.

  He clearly didn’t need money as badly as I did. Or he wouldn’t have gone all possessive dominant under the Prince Charming guise. That was wrong on so many levels when he knew I had my Gramma to think about.

  But he sure got his eye fill of those tits, didn’t he? I saw that much. Acting like he cared. He cared, sure. Only because I was convenient. Men like him were good at making a woman feel loved. The problem was, they didn’t know when to stop, and any woman within range was fair game. Bastard. Danielle was probably one of his subs, judging by the way she acted toward him.

  I slapped the final piece of the puzzle in place. “Done!” I glanced over at Lucian who maybe had five pieces left. Impressive since his puzzle was harder. I looked at the time. Almost three minutes left. We aced it. Thank God.

  “Done.” He pushed his chair back and put his hands over his head, looking at the clock. “Yes.” His victorious murmur betrayed how much his dominant nature hated losing.

  Fury slithered through me when Danielle took the blonde announcer’s place. “The second phase is a simple true or false test.” Her words flowed like shit on silk. “I’ll ask the questions, and first one to blurt the correct answer wins. Extra points if you know the truth to the false answers, too.”

  Good. Another break for me. Jeopardy happened to be my favorite game show.

  “Let’s begin” She held a small stack of index cards before her. “Lightning never strikes the same place twice.”

  “False.” We both blurted the answer.

  “I heard Tara first,” Danielle said. “Extra ten points if you know the truth of that, Tara.”

  I closed my eyes, collecting the data in my brain. “Um. Lightening zig-zags to the ground like a step leader or like a ladder even. Each step determines the next. Left, right, down, sometimes up. An opposite charge meets it, like a streamer and it can come from a telephone pole, a tree, a vehicle, or even all three at the same time.” I glanced at Lucian to see if he had the same you’re a freak look Danielle had. I found him glaring at me with an odd expression. “…but whichever streamer connects with the descending step leader first will complete the circuit… and trigger a … rush of electricity. A lightning bolt.” I cleared my throat.

  “Wow, somebody was paying attention in Science class.” Danielle’s laughter held ridicule and I scraped at the non-existent fingernail polish on my nails, silently willing an aneurism on her.

  “Oookay, next. As a human body grows larger, its number of bones gets smaller.

  “True.”

  “Tara wins again. Lucian, you better pick up the pace. She is Domming you.” She put her card behind the deck. “Warts can be caused by touching certain animals, especially toads.”

  “False.” We both blurted.

  “I think that one is Lucian’s.” Danielle’s perfect browse raised. “Extra ten points for the right answer.

  I listened while he gave an impressively detailed account of my own answer. So he was intelligent. A Smart-ass Dom Dick.

  “Wow, what a pair we have here. Next question. Coffee originated in Brazil.”

  “False,” I blurted first. “It originated in Ethiopia.”

  Lucian snorted a little. “That your final answer Ms. Jeopardy?”

  I gave him my best smug look. “Yes, it is, Mr. Bane.”

  Danielle giggled then went on, “And she is correct. Okay. Labrador retrievers were originally bred to retrieve fishing nets.”

  “True.” Again we both blurted.

  “I think Lucian got that one. And he is correct.” She put the card behind the deck. “Ancient Olympic athletes competed nude.”

  “True,” he blurted faster than I could.

  “Very good. Lucian has tied the challenge. The ‘dark side of the Moon’ is the same as the ‘far side of the Moon’.”

  “False!” I yelled first. “The dark side is the side not currently lit and the far side never faces Earth.”

  Danielle whistled then gave one of her astonished laughs. “That is correct! Tara is one up. Okay number eight. Franklin Roosevelt is one of the presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore.”

  “False,” I blurted. “The four presidents are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.”

  “And Tara leads by two. The Red Sea gets its name from a slaughter that occurred there during Biblical times.”

  “False!” Lucian managed a split second ahead of me. “The water is normally an intense blue-green, but occasionally turns reddish brown due to dying algae.”

  “Tara, if he gets this last one, he’ll tie the score. Horses have three gaits, walk, trot and gallop.”

  “False.” He gave a broad grin and without skipping a beat, followed with the correct answer. “They also lope or canter, and have various versions of a jog, running walk, pace and several others”

  Danielle clapped like a bratty child. “You both did great! Now with a tied score, we move into a bonus round. If you answer correctly, you receive the point, but if you give the wrong answer, your opponent gets the point for that question. Ready?”

  We both nodded.

  “Tara, what are Lucian’s religious beliefs?”

  Ugh. Shit. I sidled a glance his way, trying to think of a catchall kind of religion. “I’d have to guess… Catholic.”

  “That’s correct!” Giggle, giggle. “And Lucian? What are Tara’s religious beliefs?”

  Lucian assessed me like the answer might be written in my posture. “I’d have to go with… Amish.”

  The joy I should have been experiencing with his wrong answer never came. I was too busy being pissed that he’d say something so ridiculous, no, that he would act as though I displayed traits anything remotely close to Amish. “You’re full of shit.”

  He grinned. “You were pretty frigid when I met you, love.”

  I turned to him and placed my elbow on the table and twirled my hair. “Because I didn’t bend over and let you lick my ass in the first five minutes? I should have said fundamentalist Mormon for you, Mr. Sub addict.”

  Laughter erupted and the reminder that we had an audience burned my cheeks. “Tara won by two points,” Danielle sang. “And the right to Dom in the next segment.”

  Chapter Nine

  Danielle’s tone made me nervous about the next challenge. I hated Tara Domming in these stupid things. She’d never believe it, but it had nothing to do with wanting to control her. I just wanted to control her environment to keep her safe. And if that meant controlling her as well, then whatever. Especially since she was so fucking intent on p
roving herself capable in areas she had no clue about.

  I followed Danielle and the ever-rigid Grimes. Every time I saw him, he reminded me more of a secret agent wannabe. The pair emphasized my sense of being trapped in a cheesy seventies porn flick. And every pitifully contrived scenario, a.k.a. challenge, made the feeling worse. It was hard to believe the company couldn’t afford a better, at least believable, presentation for this gig. Combining anything BDSM with real life was a bad enough challenge, but their efforts reminded me of dry fucking. Careless preparation.

  On the other hand, their public face was opulence overload.

  We entered a dank room where the next challenge loomed. My heart jumped into overdrive. A huge glass rectangle filled with water sat on end. The oversized version of a child’s swing seat suspended over the tank with chains had a major bad effect on me. Water and chains didn’t go together in my mind. Not at all. Not. At. All. And a poorly lit, damp-smelling room didn’t help.

  My body began to panic ahead of me, pacing me back and forth. I held my head in both hands and Tara intercepted my pacing. “You okay?”

  “No, I’m not. I don’t want to do this.”

  “They haven’t even said—”

  I shot my hand toward the tank. “It’s kind of fucking obvious.”

  She put her hand on my shoulder and rubbed. “Stop freaking out. Calm down.”

  “Okay,” Danielle interrupted. “This phase of today’s challenge is all about reading and trusting your partner’s body language. In any meaningful interaction, we must be aware, not only of our partner’s words, but of what they say with their body. In a romantic relationship, this is doubly important, but it’s especially vital in the BDSM world. Your knowledge of, and your ability to accurately interpret your partner’s non-verbal communications can be the key to incomparable pleasure. Or it can help you take the next step in becoming fully committed to one another. And the lack can lead directly to failure.”

  She pointed to the rectangular nightmare. “One of you will be chained to that seat and submerged into the water. The other person will try to decipher the code to the combination that will un-lock the chains in the tank.” She walked over to the platform that held the tank of death and pointed to a red button next to the lock. “This is a panic button. There’s one on both sides. Either of you can hit it at any time and it will release the partner in the water, but doing so will forfeit your points for this segment. You will complete this challenge three times, and each time, we will add a handicap to make it more difficult. This challenge is worth a whopping one thousand possible points. Two hundred for the first, three hundred for the second and five hundred for the final. However… if the Dom doesn’t go in the tank, only half of the points are available to be awarded.” She clasped her hands together and looked at both of us. “So. Who’s going into the water?”

  “I am.”

  We’d answered at the same time and I whirled to face Tara. “Not you! No fucking way. I can hold my breath longer. And I thought you were scared of small spaces?”

  “That’s not small. And you’re afraid of water.”

  “Was. Not anymore. I overcame.”

  “Did you?”

  “Yes. I did. Aqua-man?”

  She pursed her lips and looked to the right at that little invisible man over my shoulder.

  “Look.” I decided to try common sense. “You can’t hold your breath as long as I can. Plus you’re good with puzzles.” I grabbed her shoulders and made her look at me. “You said you’d let me Dom next time.”

  She stared back at me but I didn’t get the look in her eyes. Was that pity? For fucking what? “I know I did.” She crossed her arms. “But…I can hold my breath long enough for you to do this. And we need the points.”

  Fucking points. Of course. Anything for that. “Fine. Go in the fucking tank. First sign of struggle and I’m hitting the panic button.”

  “It’s a deal.” She turn and raised her hand. “I’m going in the tank.”

  “Fuck,” I whispered, pacing again.

  Five minutes later, I watched them lower her into the water, chained to the seat. I took several deep breaths, calming myself, waiting for the go, praying I didn’t vomit. God, I hated this. Anything but this.

  “Go!”

  I ran to the tank and started deciphering the clues. Six plus three: nine. Minus two: seven. Times four: twenty-eight. Divided by four: seven. Turn right.

  I turned the combination then read the next. Sixteen minus five: eleven. Plus ten: twenty-one. Times two: forty-two. Divided by seven: six. Turn left.

  My hands trembled as I turned it then glanced at Tara. She nodded to me and I hurried through the last math puzzle then quickly turned it right.

  The lock disengaged and a siren blared that nearly stopped my fucking heart while Tara swam to the top. Her gasp told me she was out of fucking air. Danielle whooped like a hyena on a fresh carcass and I fought the urge to let her see just how badly I craved to kill her.

  “Round one accomplished! Award America’s favorite couple two hundred points! Now, for the three hundred.”

  “Doesn’t she get a ten minute break?” I spun to Danielle, pissed. Tara needed to recover.

  “Five, actually.” She winced, doing a piss poor job of looking sympathetic. More like ecstatic.

  “I’m fine, Lucian. I had air left.” Tara barely managed the gaspy words.

  “Two seconds’ worth? If you struggle, I’m hitting that button.”

  “Just…” she fought to catch her breath, “focus on the lock.”

  “I’ll focus on what’s important!” Like you goddamn should.

  “Okay, fine. Do what you have to. But don’t panic on me. I need these points!”

  “You need the points.” I nodded, pacing again. “Trust me I know how much you need the points.” Goddamn points. I wished all over again I’d been able to convince her to walk away that day while we waited for auditions. But that wish was a double-edged sword. If she had left, I wouldn’t have had the chance to get to know her, wouldn’t have fallen in love with her. That made it all worthwhile. I hoped!

  “Are we ready?”

  “I’m ready,” Tara said.

  “They’re raising the seat, just fasten yourself in again the way you did the first time.”

  “Got it.”

  “Now this time, we’re going to handicap both of you. Tara will be blindfolded. She will be forced to blindly trust in Lucian’s competence, both in reading her and in deciphering the puzzle. Lucian you will have to write the problem out as you work it. Eye-hand coordination and speed. This adds another dimension to the body language puzzle, makes it more difficult to interpret, and forces you to rely more heavily on intuition and your prior knowledge of your partner.” Grimes handed a small pad of paper and a pencil to me. “Okay, are you ready?”

  I nodded, looking up at Tara. “How are you feeling?”

  She smiled. “I’m good, I’m fine. Perfectly fine. We’ve got this.” The way she whisked the words wasn’t very convincing.

  It suddenly occurred to me that maybe the blindfold gave her a small space feeling. “What about the blindfold?”

  “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

  She was so fucking lying. I could hear it, see it in the tension that held every line of her body rigid.

  “And go!”

  She took a huge breath and they lowered her into the water. I decided to work all the numbers first on the paper then turn the combination last. I glanced at Tara between every problem and finally got to the last fucking one then hurried and turned the combination. My peripheral vision caught the bubbles escaping her as I spun it to the final number and jumped back when the siren erupted and the lock released.

  Tara swam to the top and the sound of her desperately sucking down air infuriated me. She was seconds away from no air. From drowning.

  I grabbed my head and clenched my eyes. So fucking stupid. All of it. I didn’t want to do it again.

  “I�
�m fine,” she kept saying not long after she surfaced. No big deal.

  Lies, lies, lies. So obvious in her trembling voice.

  “You get a seven minute break. Then the final challenge.” Danielle strutted near the tank, looking up. “One final handicap will be added. In addition to being blindfolded, you’ll have your hands bound behind your back. You’ll have to be ready to use your foot to press the panic button. It may not seem like much of an added handicap, but according to the panel of professionals that helped devise these challenges, having the hands bound is a psychological challenge that puts a strain on the physical. You’ll have to trust Lucian and his abilities far more deeply than before.”

  Her high heels thunked hollowly on the plywood platform under the tank as she stepped down and approached me with a voracious smile. “As for Lucian, he’ll once again write his problems out, but he’ll do it with his left hand. The seconds that will add should be just enough to make it… well, challenging.” She sang the last words reminding me of a demonic Barbie.

  “Okay, are we ready? This last segment is worth up to five hundred points.” She glanced over her shoulder and called out, “Tara, can you handle this one?”

  “I can. I can do this.” It was a psych speech and she’d likely been having it since we’d begun. And the tone in her voice said quite the opposite. She couldn’t, she couldn’t do this. But of course she fucking would anyway.

  I shook my head, needing air, needing a break.

  “Okay, break time is up,” Danielle said.

  The assistant came up to me and tied my right arm to my body. I’d never wanted to deck someone so badly. The second assistant tied Tara’s hands behind her back and put her blindfold back in place.

  Danielle raised her hand. “On your mark. Get set. Go.”

  Ten seconds in and I saw that writing with my left hand while having a fucking panic attack wasn’t working out. By the time I got to the second number, bubbles were escaping her mouth. I couldn’t stop looking at her while trying to write. Then five plus three times two minus seven was suddenly rocket science and my mind drew a blank. More bubbles escaped and I slammed my hand on the panic button and the chair she was on raced upward out of the water.